Osgood, playing behind a totally stacked team as he was the last two seasons, never had to deal with the sort of barrages Howard has been weathering so far in these playoffs.

While this is irrelevant to the topic, your assessment of Osgood's challenges the last few years, especially last year, is way off. That stacked team last year had countless injuries and were a defensive nightmare. How on earth do people so easily forget that Osgood was essentially a shoo-in for the Conn Smythe last year for this reason alone? We had every reason to go down early if not for the excellent play of Osgood. And remember in 2008 against the Pens? 2 shut outs to open the series and take a 2-0 lead against Bettman's fake-son's team!? Give me a break. Osgood was nothing short of outstanding any way you shake it the last two years.

That said, and I'm not saying Howard has been horrible, he hasn't played very well either. He's had really solid moments, but far too many piss-poor moments as well and he has lacked the ability to make key saves at the right time now in 6 of 9 playoff games. He's not losing the games for us in a Legace-esque fashion, but he's certainly not doing much to help matters either. He's got to do more to keep us in the game in the first or it doesn't matter how well he plays in the 2nd or 3rd. Phoenix was a terrible offensive team and now we're facing a team that's actually got some firepower. He's got to be stronger early on in these games, whether the defense is helping or not.

It's everyone's fault we're not playing well more often than not in this post-season, and Jimmy Howard absolutely deserves to shoulder as much of the blame for that as the rest of the team. It's a tough lesson to learn, but he's a rookie, and hopefully he is learning that it takes a lot more of "something" to do in the playoffs what seems fairly natural in the regular season. While I'm not letting him off the hook for this post-season, I'm not about to hold it against him either. Again, ROOKIE!!!

While this is irrelevant to the topic, your assessment of Osgood's challenges the last few years, especially last year, is way off. That stacked team last year had countless injuries and were a defensive nightmare. How on earth do people so easily forget that Osgood was essentially a shoo-in for the Conn Smythe last year for this reason alone? We had every reason to go down early if not for the excellent play of Osgood. And remember in 2008 against the Pens? 2 shut outs to open the series and take a 2-0 lead against Bettman's fake-son's team!? Give me a break. Osgood was nothing short of outstanding any way you shake it the last two years.

That said, and I'm not saying Howard has been horrible, he hasn't played very well either. He's had really solid moments, but far too many piss-poor moments as well and he has lacked the ability to make key saves at the right time now in 6 of 9 playoff games. He's not losing the games for us in a Legace-esque fashion, but he's certainly not doing much to help matters either. He's got to do more to keep us in the game in the first or it doesn't matter how well he plays in the 2nd or 3rd. Phoenix was a terrible offensive team and now we're facing a team that's actually got some firepower. He's got to be stronger early on in these games, whether the defense is helping or not.

It's everyone's fault we're not playing well more often than not in this post-season, and Jimmy Howard absolutely deserves to shoulder as much of the blame for that as the rest of the team. It's a tough lesson to learn, but he's a rookie, and hopefully he is learning that it takes a lot more of "something" to do in the playoffs what seems fairly natural in the regular season. While I'm not letting him off the hook for this post-season, I'm not about to hold it against him either. Again, ROOKIE!!!

Do you remember game five between the Wings and the Blackhawks? It was considered by many to be the goaltending duel of the playoffs, and I believe it was the game in which Osgood faced the most shots (aside from the 3OT game against Anaheim, in which Anaheim really didn't have a ton of quality scoring chances; I remember this because I was there). The Blackhawks had only 31 shots on goal in that game compared to the 45 Howard saw tonight, and Osgood had far more help last postseason than Jimmy does now.

I don't know what they're expecting the goalie to do with the 5 on 3s and odd man rushes and all manner of nonsense he's being made to deal with.

The worst part is his teammates don't share much of the blame either. These first two games have been dumb as hell.

"We've been in the same spot all year long. We won 50 games for the fourth year in a row. People think we're just hum-drum and boring. No, you know what we are, we're good. You can't do what we do every single day and not be good." - Mike Babcock

Wow.... Howard makes 40+ saves, so lets put Ozzie in. What a great idea. Let's put an ice cold goalie in, that didn't even win 10 games this regular season, for a goaltender that makes 40+ saves in a playoff game. Watch the highlights, you'll notice that Howie made some incredible saves that kept the Wings in the game. I think you should be bitching about the 10 penalties, which is what cost the game.

I voted "No" just in case we do lose this series no one can blame it on Ozzie.

If we lose this series with Howard in net I can completely see someone making a "We would have won with Osgood" thread. If we switch to Ozzie (very big if) and lose, I can see the "We would have won with Howard" thread. So yeah someone will blame the goalie regardless of how well they play. Hell they could stop 99 out of 100 in a game with only the perfect goal going past them, but hey someone will blame the goalie.

Edit: grammar

Edited by Zeowingsfan, 03 May 2010 - 02:24 AM.

The logo on the front is always more important than the name on the back

As much of an Ozzie fan as I am, I have to agree. The officiating and diving is what killed the game tonight, and if it weren't for Howard it would have been way worse. Ozzie can step it up for the playoffs, yes, but has he ever faced that many shots and let in fewer goals? I think not. Any time he faces 30+ shots it's usually 4 goals or so, Howard made some great saves, having said that, he has let some soft goals in this post season, but he is still a great goaltender and he still deserves to be in the pipes.

Seriously I actually wish that a goalie change would fix the situation, that would be a hell of a lot easier fix than what is really the problem. The Wings have not shown up for either the first or last 10 minutes of either game and that is when in fact they have lost both games. Well technically it was the first 2 and last 7, put you get my point.

They are not showing up to start the game they look half a sleep and have given up multiple PP goals in the first 5.

The game winner in each game was scored with less than 10 minutes left.

Two 5-3 in one game, 3 in the series and we are two games into it.

10 pp, a 3 on 1 (lids had no stick so I guess 3 on 1.5).

Like I said I wish the goalie switch would solve the problem, but hey at least J-ho didn't give up 6 in 2 periods, looking at you Niemi.

"The more I know about people - the better I like my dog." - Mark Twain

"A wise man once told me, ‘Don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who'." Jay Z, Takeover

"When I was looking for a captain, I wanted a guy with the Red Wings crest tattooed on his chest," said former Detroit coach Jacques Demers, who named Yzerman captain in 1986. "Steve Yzerman was that guy."

“Told him if he wasn't ultra-competitive he couldn't come here. If he didn't bring it every day he couldn't come here, because he was going to hate it if he didn't, dislike the coach and dislike playing here.

“It's real straightforward. If you don't do it right, you're not happy here." Babcock